Walking the Talk

Walking the Talk at Phoebe Ministries

Late last year, CHHSM's director of consulting services, Daniel Pryfogle, traveled to Phoebe Ministries in Allentown, Pa., to facilitate a senior leadership retreat. Pryfogle's work was done through CHHSM's Walking the Talk program, which works with CHHSM members to identify, amplify and leverage their existing organizational strengths.

Phoebe's Walking the Talk engagement was one in a series of regular Phoebe senior leadership retreats that promote education, planning, visioning and team-building. The Rev. Ken Daniel, CHHSM Board member and Phoebe vice president of senior living services, explains that this retreat was particularly pivotal.

"We've just come through a difficult phase. We've repositioned our business, eliminated expense, come through a turnaround and refocused. We're looking stronger and gaining strength in the market," says Daniel. "All of that good work, however, had a very materialistic focus. We needed to spend time examining what we're really about."

Pryfogle led Phoebe's leaders in examining the moments when the ministry has most fulfilled its mission. Daniel summarized his questions this way: "When is Phoebe truly being the Phoebe you know and love? What are the experiences that make you look back in pride and say 'wow'? That's the real Phoebe!"

That discussion yielded a bountiful collection of stories about Phoebe's ministry: about a resident who moved in after a stroke and was not expected to live, but during his convalescence, instead rediscovered his interest in oil painting; a nursing assistant, living out of her car, who was helped to find permanent housing by the human resources department and her co-workers; a close relationship between an employee and a resident that fosters health for both of them.

"Based on the stories we uncovered working with Daniel Pryfogle," said Daniel, "we considered what strengths Phoebe should embrace--what we should be about in the future. We're now thinking about our strengths using the image of our logo, which is a representation of connected hearts. Our next step in this process is to consider how we can take our hearts that are so connected to the organization and connect other hearts to it."

"The energy around this is incredible," continued Daniel. "I get very excited about Daniel Pryfogle and what he does for CHHSM and the different, gentle perspective he brings to strategy. In our work with him, we reaffirmed that we don't have to be apologetic for being a faith-based organization. We are very focused on business outcomes, and it's important to have a fiscally healthy organization. But our faith heritage is a whole other resource pool for us that is as valuable as our endowment. It's our spiritual endowment, and it contains an energy that can drive transformation."

To learn more about how Walking the Talk can help your ministry uncover and leverage its strengths, please call or email Daniel Pryfogle at 919-460-7069 or pryfogled@chhsm.org.